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I can very much relate to this; my motto is "you don't own stuff; the stuff owns you". And every time I've moved, I was amazed at just how much stuff one (even

I can very much relate to this; my motto is "you don't own stuff; the stuff owns you". And every time I've moved, I was amazed at just how much stuff one (even unwillingly) accumulates, and how liberating it feels to get rid of it. I also prefer to own just a few high quality and/or useful things over having a 'ton of crap'.

jrs235 11y ago
Yup. Which is why as I said elsewhere: Give me the gift of recognizing my preference for no material gifts. Or toilet paper. I'll eventually make use of and need TP. (It helps remove crap! ;)
majewsky 11y ago
I've recently started building an actual database of my physical inventory, and have already found multiple items which I needlessly own twice because when I bought the second one, I didn't realize I had one already.
- artursapek 11y ago
  That's awesome. You just have a sql database of your physical possessions?
  - mbrock 11y ago
    One time I took square photos of all my things and put them in CouchDB with just a label. It was pretty fun to see an alphabetical list of photos of nearly everything I owned. Like an RPG inventory.
    - solotronics 11y ago
      This is an amazing idea. First thing that comes to mind is a process to automate labeling like with google images. Is there anything open source that fits this?
      - mbrock 11y ago
        That would be pretty neat, but I just spent like fifteen minutes going through the photos and typing a word for each one... toothbrush, Zippo, shoes, plectrum, document... kind of fun, actually!
      - wayfarer2s 11y ago
        That seems like it would take longer than just manually labeling the things to begin with, especially with edge cases (what happens when there are 2 items in the picture? how do you handle mislabeling?).
  - majewsky 11y ago
    It's much easier than that. Just a text file that I keep in a git repo (so I can sync it between systems). First, I assign string IDs to storage locations following a simple hierarchical pattern. For example, `H` might be the hallway. `Hc` might be the cupboard on the hallway. `Hc3` might be the third drawer in that cupboard, and so on. Now if I put my old external harddrive into that drawer, I write into the inventory text file: "Hc3 external harddrive". It's the storage location, followed by the asset name. If the thing might have many names, I just chain all of them together. Now all the queries come down to simple grepping, for example: - "grep '^H' inventory" gives me all the items I have stored in the hallway. - "grep Windows inventory" shows me where I put that old Windows 7 DVD. My system also includes optional "intents" to be appended to the storage location. There's "#s" (sale), "#o" (offer = give away for free), "#g" (garbage), and "#e" (evict = move to a less accessible storage location if space is needed). So I can just show the output of "grep '#o' inventory" to my friends, and they can see at a glance what stuff I have to give away.
xjay 11y ago
I remember that message very well from a funny commercial [1]. "To achieve full freedom in life, you must never own more than seven things, or else they'll own you!" I won't spoil the rest. [1] Thorn - Freedom in Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcLtOaYvPI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcLtOaYvPI
cfallin 11y ago
> "you don't own stuff; the stuff owns you" Reminds me of the George Carlin bit on "stuff". Brilliant commentary on the American way, as always: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac

jrs235 11y ago

Yup. Which is why as I said elsewhere: Give me the gift of recognizing my preference for no material gifts. Or toilet paper. I'll eventually make use of and need TP. (It helps remove crap! ;)

majewsky 11y ago

I've recently started building an actual database of my physical inventory, and have already found multiple items which I needlessly own twice because when I bought the second one, I didn't realize I had one already.

artursapek 11y ago
That's awesome. You just have a sql database of your physical possessions?
- mbrock 11y ago
  One time I took square photos of all my things and put them in CouchDB with just a label. It was pretty fun to see an alphabetical list of photos of nearly everything I owned. Like an RPG inventory.
  - solotronics 11y ago
    This is an amazing idea. First thing that comes to mind is a process to automate labeling like with google images. Is there anything open source that fits this?
    - mbrock 11y ago
      That would be pretty neat, but I just spent like fifteen minutes going through the photos and typing a word for each one... toothbrush, Zippo, shoes, plectrum, document... kind of fun, actually!
    - wayfarer2s 11y ago
      That seems like it would take longer than just manually labeling the things to begin with, especially with edge cases (what happens when there are 2 items in the picture? how do you handle mislabeling?).
- majewsky 11y ago
  It's much easier than that. Just a text file that I keep in a git repo (so I can sync it between systems). First, I assign string IDs to storage locations following a simple hierarchical pattern. For example, `H` might be the hallway. `Hc` might be the cupboard on the hallway. `Hc3` might be the third drawer in that cupboard, and so on. Now if I put my old external harddrive into that drawer, I write into the inventory text file: "Hc3 external harddrive". It's the storage location, followed by the asset name. If the thing might have many names, I just chain all of them together. Now all the queries come down to simple grepping, for example: - "grep '^H' inventory" gives me all the items I have stored in the hallway. - "grep Windows inventory" shows me where I put that old Windows 7 DVD. My system also includes optional "intents" to be appended to the storage location. There's "#s" (sale), "#o" (offer = give away for free), "#g" (garbage), and "#e" (evict = move to a less accessible storage location if space is needed). So I can just show the output of "grep '#o' inventory" to my friends, and they can see at a glance what stuff I have to give away.

xjay 11y ago

I remember that message very well from a funny commercial [1]. "To achieve full freedom in life, you must never own more than seven things, or else they'll own you!" I won't spoil the rest. [1] Thorn - Freedom in Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcLtOaYvPI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcLtOaYvPI

cfallin 11y ago

> "you don't own stuff; the stuff owns you" Reminds me of the George Carlin bit on "stuff". Brilliant commentary on the American way, as always: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac